final preparations for the big adventure....

Spent Monday getting the hitch put on our new Subie...

Spent Tuesday getting the tow bar attached to our new Subie...

Spent a bizillion $$ doing all of this..but actually saved over $700 by buying the parts myself online & taking everything to the RV place in Carson City to install, they were doubtful that I had everything, but I did - woo hoo!

Also had the brackets installed for the Guardian Rockshield we purchased to protect our Subie from stuff kicked up from BeBe...

the new tow bar hook-up

our new hitch

This weekend Bill will install the auxiliary braking system and we will start to pack up & see what we do and do NOT have room for to take outta here!  Another trip down to storage, for sure, to drop of some unneeded things and pick up some others we thing may be useful.  I think we are going to be ok, space-wise, which I am pretty shocked about. We may actually have room for a box load of firewood & I think we are going to purchase a small gas BBQ because we have really used our gas grill (from home) here most every night. We trashed our camp stove in 6 weeks but luckily had a brand new one in storage we had never used - I actually think we will get more use out of this one, so that's cool. 

I am getting a bit nervous....Bill has only  5 days left in the office so this weekend is going to be intense, making sure he has everything he needs & preparing for both of us to be in this tiny space 24/7. 

drips and drains & all those pesky homeownership horrors!

Our friend, Jen, noticed a little "wetness" when I pulled something out of the basement (what we call all the storage down below) & that it was located right under the sink...oh no, here we go...Bill is incredibly handy but when it comes to plumbing he just screams!!  I have found that it really is the only thing that totally unglues him - tee hee!  Anyway...drip, drip, drip, under the sink is damp and then I notice a week later that another spot farther away is wet...we can't find the RV plumbing part he needs, blah, blah, blah, he unscrewed it, put some vaseline on it, adjusted the water pressure and voila - no drippage! We ARE keeping an eye on it but omg, what is next, I am sure I can't even imagine!


We finally opened up all the boxes we ordered for the tow bar assembly & hooked up the part that goes on Bebe easily, now to pay the blood suckers to hook up and wire the Subie on Tuesday...had to buy a hitch to go on the Subie which U-haul will do Monday morning...are you adding all this up $$$$$$$ ? Now we are talking about solar panels for the roof that can angle up for some boon-docking power to our computers. 


We have 10 days left in Tahoe and I am both sad and excited, sad to leave my beautiful Tahoe and all of our amazing friends and excited to really start on our adventure. 


There is this great site NuRVers.com - people more like us, working, burners, young-minded and they are having a New Year's eve party in Quartzite. A few of them boon-docked out there last year & it's really really CHEAP! One described it as burning man without the dust & costumes! But they also have access to dump stations and water. So we are trying to educate ourselves about boon-docking long-term & still being able to work. Not sure if this will happen during tax season though, that may be a little too stressful. I think I need a pool & jacuzzi during March & April ;)

lessons to learn.......

...there are soooo many of them! Thank goodness for all of the great advice out there, I sincerely don't know how we could do any of this without it! It's been quite chilly in the morning lately here in Tahoe - down to 30 degrees! So we've taken to turning on the heater for a bit just to take the chill off ....had no clue what we were doing to our propane consumption until something prompted me to ask Bill how our tank was and low and behold we were on "E"!!!!!!! This was on Saturday & of course, Labor Day Weekend...tried to call around to some propane companies up here and of course, everyone was closed, called the campground office and guess what - the propane delivery peeps came FRIDAY! We could pack up the whole rv and take it to a tank to fill up but OMG that is quite a process...so we decided to just stop using the heater and hot water & ride it out until we could deal with it this week....we've been showering at the campground facilities but washing up & doing the dishes with cold water. On the RV.net forums this morning I saw some chatter about whether or not to heat your water with propane or electricity as some RVs have both - when I asked Bill about this he checked ours and GUESS WHAT?! WE HAVE BOTH TOO and immediately switched it to electricity - woo hoo - hot water!!!!!!!!  gotta laugh..........

towing.......oy vey

It's always when you think you've got to be all done buying crap when you get hit upside the head! When we bought our little BeBe she came with a tow bar to use to tow a car behind you. The previous owner had a Mini Cooper so we knew there was going to be some adjustment to whatever 4wd we purchased...but had no idea we were in for another $3000 purchase!!! The set-up of this little excursion we call "full-timing" has definitely turned out to be way more expensive than we expected. But of course, we do like to do things "right"...


So far we have purchased shade screens for the front, driver & passenger windows for when we are parked - they do keep out 85% of the sunlight & since all of my computer info is up there I have to protect it!

Then we got a "bra" for the front because after our CO trip BeBe got slammed with rocks...next were the seat covers which of course, we really needed too, cuz we sit in them all day working & that fake leather just wasn't too comfy in the heat...then the tire covers...the new (towable) 4wd car...and now the tow package....once we purchase the mounting blocks specific for our car then we have to make sure we have all the right wiring and something new - an auxiliary braking system! I did my best buying all of the parts online, saving us about $500 but we are still going to have to pay about $1000 to get this all hooked up, then, maybe THEN we will be done and can start saving all that money we set out to do with this venture....we will keep you posted! 

funny happening while doing business....

Last week we had our new sheepskin seat covers put on - the guy from Reno made the trek up here to install them for us, so very cool!  While I was at yoga (with our car) Bill worked from home while the guy was here and at 9:10 remembered that the conference call he had at 9:30 wasn't one he could take from home/rv, there was a woman coming up from Sac to take the call with him at the office!  Realizing that there was a huge possibility that there would be no one in the office he gave the seat cover guy a check in case he wasn't back when he was done, threw on his clothes and jumped on his furry bike and pedaled there. She was in the parking lot waiting in her car when he discovered he forgot his office keys! As if it wasn't crazy (read: Tahoe) enough to see this guy on his furry bike ride up for a meeting, he jumps in her car and off they go back to the campsite where they take the call at our picnic table under our cute shade structure complete with candles and hanging Japanese lanterns....just doing bidness RV and Tahoe style!!

BLOGGING 101 - HELP!

I am trying, so very hard, to learn how to do this, but I have no idea what I am doing!!  I've got the posting down, but am having a hard time trying to put up a slideshow...


Anyway, life is good so far, we've settled into a little routine and we watch our neighbors come and go.
We just purchased our toad, a 2010 Subaru Forester, manual transmission - because it is very easy to tow, we don't have to do anything to it, so we've been told...but now as I look into having the towbar attached and the purchase of a supplemental braking system I realize there is NOTHING easy about this full-timing thing and it's pretty pricey as well.  So much new information to digest and figure out...I think this entire year will be one big learning experience for sure.  We are trying to choose between the Brake Buddy, which has been around forever and people are very happy with and the Ready Brake/Ready Brute system, which seems simpler and is less expensive - I am leaning towards this but am still researching them. I don't know anything about this stuff!!


We went away for a long weekend and left BeBe at the campsite, put everything away, tied the awning down and everything was just as we left it when we came home - woo hoo!  My daughter graduated from cosmetology school and we had a fun celebration.  My son graduates this December from CSU Sacramento and I just made my last tuition payment.  Madeleine, Bill's daughter, graduated UCLA last June and is in Cambridge to get her masters in psychology and his son, Will, is at Chapman college in Orange, CA starting his senior year (we hope)! So the timing was/is perfect...we had to make sure there was no place for anyone to move back in with us!!

Here is a pic of the graduate with my mom and me...


Back to trying to post my pics...wish me luck!

2 weeks down!

Well, we are now two weeks into our full-timing lifestyle....still in Tahoe, only about a mile from our home, so not too much of a change right now - it makes for a nice transition.  
Moving was quite different this time as we had to decide: toss, sell, storage, RV? for each and every item we owned! I ended up with one office box of scanning left to do - I am about 30% through it now and Bill ended up taking a lot of stuff to his office but has been slowly getting through it. The movers we hired moved at typical Tahoe time and it was a very long day from 9pm to 7pm BUT they got everything into a 10x10 storage unit and we were very grateful! The first year's storage cost us $800 and we will have a year to decide if this is the life for us for awhile or not...


Our Tahoe campground is like real camping and we've set up a sweet outside area with an additional canopy, our big grill from home and our little traveling fire pit - we spend most evenings there just chilling and welcome visitors! I have actually been getting some work done and try to get outside for an hour or so here & there to just chill in my little lounge chair, it makes you feel as if you really are on vacation - just that little bit of time. The campground has a heated pool, tennis, basketball, volleyball, movies, music, ice cream socials and karaoke and was packed when we arrived but now as we are getting into the middle of August it's thinned out a lot - we met Carol, a wonderful woman and her bird, Zach, and we hope to catch up with them along the road again sometime.  


This weekend we are on a little outing (sans RV) to visit our friends Dr. K & Suzanne in Truckee and then will hop on down to Walnut Creek to celebrate my daughter Lauryn's graduation with all of the family, then head into Sacramento with my mom and for Bill to check-in with the Sacto office, then back home.


Our friend, Daniel, is moving into our old house & we've left our washer/dryer there for him and for us to use while in town - a great deal for both of us!


The plan right now is to stay in Tahoe until the end of September and then move on to http://www.nevadatreasurervresort.com/  a beautiful RV resort & spa in a dumpy little town for a month or two if we like it...we have a spot reserved with a gazebo & stainless steel BBQ.


Will be posting pics soon of our newest & latest digs!